The 1948 World Snooker Championship was a professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

tournament that took place from 9 March to 1 May 1948. It was an edition of the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship, or simply known as the World Championship, is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the richest event to date with a total prize money of £2,395,000, including ...

first held in

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the BBC, British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, John Reith becomes the first ...

. A qualifying event with eight participants was held from 1 to 13 December 1947 at

Burroughes Hall Burroughes Hall was an important English billiards, billiards and snooker venue in Soho Square, London from 1903 until it closed in 1967. The hall was in the premises of Burroughes & Watts Ltd., who had been at 19 Soho Square since 1836. Burroug ...

and was won by

John Pulman Herbert John Pulman (12 December 192325 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He first won the title at the 1957 Championship and retained it across seven challenges ...

, who joined seven other players in the main event. The final was held at

Leicester Square Hall Thurston's Hall was a major billiards and snooker venue between 1901 and 1955 in Leicester Square, London. The hall was in the premises of Thurston & Co. Ltd which relocated to Leicester Square in 1901. The building was bombed in 1940 and reope ...

in London, England, from 19 April to 1 May 1948. For the second year running the final was contested by Fred Davis and

Walter Donaldson Walter Donaldson may refer to: * Walter Donaldson (snooker player), (1907–1973) Scottish snooker player * Walter Donaldson (songwriter), (1893–1947) American songwriter {{human name disambiguation, Donaldson, Walter ...

. Davis won his first World title by defeating Donaldson 84 to 61 in the final, having already reached a winning margin at 73–52. Davis also made the highest of the tournament, 109.

Background

The

is a professional tournament and the official

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

of the game of

. The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India. Professional

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the UK and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team uses a diffe ...

player and

billiard hall A billiard hall, also known as a pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often ha ...

manager

Joe Davis Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is ...

noticed the increasing popularity of snooker compared to billiards in the 1920s, and with

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

-based billiards equipment manager

Bill Camkin William Alexander Camkin (1894 – 26 April 1956) was an English billiard hall owner who came to prominence in the early years of the World Snooker Championship, when many of the tournament's matches were held at his clubs. He was involved in ...

, persuaded the

Billiards Association and Control Council The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships ...

(BACC) to recognise an official professional snooker championship in the 1926–27 season. In 1927, the final of the first professional snooker championship was held at Camkin's Hall; Davis won the tournament by beating Tom Dennis in the final. The annual competition was not titled the World Championship until the 1935 tournament, but the 1927 tournament is now referred to as the first World Snooker Championship. Davis had also won the title every year from

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...

, after which the tournament was not held again until 1946 due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

was the defending champion, having defeated Fred Davis 82–63 in the

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...

final.

Format

The closing date for players to enter the tournament was 18 February 1946. There were fifteen entrants. Eight were placed in "Section B", which was to produce one qualifier to join the other seven players in "Section A", the main competition. Section B was scheduled at

in London between 1 December 1946 and 14 January 1947, with all matches consisting of 35 frames. Matches in Section A were played as the best of 71 frames, except the final which was the best of 145 frames. The quarter-finals were played at four different venues in England between 9 February and 27 March. The semi-finals took place between 29 March and 10 April at

, with the final played at the same venue from 19 April to 1 May.

Dates and venues of matches

Tournament summary

The first of the quarter-finals in the main competition was between

, who won Section B, and

Clark McConachy Clark McConachy (15 April 1895 – 12 April 1980), often known simply as Mac, was a New Zealand professional player of English billiards and snooker. Life and career McConachy was born at Glenorchy in Otago in 1895. He was the New Zealand ...

. Each player won six of the 12 frames played on the first day of their match. On the second day, McConachy took 11 of 12 frames for a 17–7 lead. McConachy maintained a ten frame lead after the next day, and extended his advantage to 12 frames at 30–18 by the close of day four. McConachy attained a winning lead on the fifth day, which he finished 38–22 ahead. After , the final score was 42–29. Sidney Smith and Albert Brown were tied at 16–16. Going into the final , Brown led 34–30. Smith won five consecutive frames, before Brown won the next two for a 36–35 victory.

Alec Brown Alec Thomas Brown (born July 23, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for Taoyuan Pauian Pilots of the P. League+. He played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Brown was drafted 50th overall in the ...

was affected by severe arthritis during his match against Davis, and lost 28–43. Davis took a 9–3 lead on the first day of their match, and, having made a break of 103 on the third day, finished it 24–12 ahead. Brown took seven of the 12 frames on day 4, but Davis secured a win at 36–24. Donaldson drew 7–7 with

Kingsley Kennerley Kingsley Kennerley (27 December 1913 – 26 June 1982) was an English billiards and snooker player. From 1937 to 1940, he appeared in each English Amateur Snooker Championship and English Amateur Billiards Championship final. He won the Bill ...

on the first day of their contest, and won 11 of the 14 frames on day 2, for an 18–10 lead. Donaldson reached a winning margin at 36–23, and made a break of 100 in the closing stages. The match finished 46–25. Donaldson and Albert Brown were level at 3–3 after their first semi-final session; Donaldson moved into an 8–4 lead by the close of the first day of their match. He doubled his lead to 16–8 the next day, but Brown narrowed the gap to four frames at 20–16 on day 3. Day four saw Donaldson move to 27–21 ahead, and at the close of day five he led 34–26. Donaldson eliminated Brown; the score was 40–31 after dead frames. Davis took a 9–3 lead against McConachy on the first day of their semi-final, and extended this to 15–3 after the next session. He compiled a break of 101 in frame 23 and finished the second day 20–4 ahead. McConachy won four of the six frames in the earlier session on day three, and each player took three frames in the later session. On day four, with both players winning three of the early session frames, it was 28–14 to Davis; at the close of that day he led 32–16. Davis reached a winning margin at 36–22; the score after dead frames was 43–28. Davis made a break of 109 during the match.

Final

Fred Davis reached the final for the third consecutive year, where he faced the defending champion, Walter Donaldson. On the first day, 19 April, Davis won seven of the 12 frames played. He achieved the same outcome on the second day, to lead 14–10, and on the third day to lead 21–15. At the close of the fourth day's play, Davis had increased his lead to ten frame at 29–19; a day later, he led 37–23. Taking eight of the twelve frames on 24 April meant that Davis led 45–27 at the end of the first week. when the match resumed on 26 April, Donaldson reduced his arrears, to 14 frames, at 35–49; remaining 14 behind at conclusion of both of the next two days of play, as each player took six frames each day. Davis won all six frames of the following day's first session, and three of six frames in the later session, leaving him three frames from victory at 70–50. On 30 April, Davis won the second, fourth and fifth frames to give him a decisive lead of 73–52. After dead frames, the score was 86–61. Davis's highest break of the match was 96, whist Donaldson's was 88. According to the reporter for ''The Billiard Player'' magazine, the final "was a keenly contested struggle, neither player taking any undue risk. This at times made some of the games slow and even tedious to watch". The correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' wrote that "it seems highly probable... that F. Davis will prove most difficult to beat for some years to come." The championship trophy was presented to Davis by

Francis Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry Francis Archibald Kelhead Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry (17 January 1896 – 27 April 1954), styled The Honourable Francis Douglas until 1900 and Viscount Drumlanrig between 1900 and 1920 was a Scottish soldier, stockbroker and author. ...

. In his autobiography, Davis described Donaldson's style of play as patient, cautious and risk-averse. Davis felt that in the 1947 final, his own lack of patience, which meant he took chances to pot balls which sometimes failed and presented opportunities for Donaldson, was a factor in his defeat. He decided that in 1948, "the way to beat him, unfortunately for the spectators, was to play him at his own game."

Main draw

The results for the main competition (Section A) were as follows. Winning players are denoted in bold.

Qualifying

All qualifying matches were held at

in London. The first-round matches were held from 1 to 13 December 1947. In the first match Sydney Lee conceded his match to

before the second day's play because of an abscess on his neck. Pulman was leading 8–2 after the first day. Only 10 frames had been played because of a power cut which curtailed the afternoon session to three frames.

Conrad Stanbury Conrad Stanbury ( 1898–April 1973) was a Canadian professional snooker player. He was the first player to make an officially-recognised century break at snooker. In 1935, he became the first player from outside the British Isles to compete in t ...

comfortably won the second match, against Eric Newman, taking a 19–5 winning lead after the second day. The third match between

Willie Leigh William Ernest Leigh (1907 – 20 November 1972) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was born in 1907 in Derby, England, and passed away on November 20, 1972, in Nottingham, England, at the age of 65. Biograp ...

and Herbert Holt was very close. Leigh won the final frame 83–35 to win the match. The final first-round match, between John Barrie and Herbert Francis was also close. The match was 12–12 after two days. Barrie won the match 19–16. The semi-finals were held from 5 to 10 January 1948. Pulman beat Stanbury in the first semi-final, taking a winning 18–15 lead on the final evening. In the second semi-final Leigh led 10–6 and won 21–14. Barrie made a break of 101 during the final evening session. In the final, played from 12 to 14 January, Leigh led 7–5 after the first day and 13–11 after two days. The match went to a final frame decider with Pulman winning 60–49, potting the last black.

Qualifying results

The results of the qualifying competition (Section B) are shown below. winning players are denoted in bold.

Century breaks

The following century breaks were made during the tournament; Fred Davis's break of 109 against Clark McConachy in their semi-final match was the highest. *109, 103, 101 Fred Davis *101 John Barrie *100 Walter Donaldson

References

{{World Snooker Championship

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

World Snooker Championships The World Snooker Championship, or simply known as the World Championship, is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the richest event to date with a total prize money of £2,395,000, including ...

World Snooker Championship, 1948